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Christian-Jewish Dialogue in a Most Unexpected Time: Jesuits, Sephardic Jews, and the Colonial New World

Join us for this year's Jerome S. Cardin Memorial Lecture presented by Sharonah Fredrick, Ph.D., assistant director of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Arizona State University.

One of the most extraordinary turning points of Jewish-Christian relations in New World history occurred during the 17th century, and spanned the areas of Southeastern Brazil and the Atlantic seacoast, into the Argentine Pampa and Peru. Among the catalysts of this drama was Padre Antonio Vieira, the great Jesuit intellectual. Born in Portugal and raised in Brazil, he became one of the most pivotal figures of the colonial New World. Battling sustained opposition, Vieira championed the cause of the Jews persecuted as “new Christians” (os novos cristaos/los nuevos cristianos) during a time of Inquisitorial dominance in the Iberian Peninsula and its Latin American colonies. By doing so, he initiated a new and controversial acceptance of the “other,” the Sephardic Jew, in the territories of the Portuguese and Spanish crowns. This thought-provoking discussion of religious persecution, the struggle for tolerance, and its impact on immigration in colonial times is relevant to many of the humanitarian and political issues we face in today’s modern world.

The Jerome S. Cardin Memorial Lecture was established by the Jerome S. Cardin family to foster exploration of topics in the humanities pertinent to the Jewish and Christian traditions, particularly in the area of Jewish-Christian relations (read the Loyola magazine article from the first lecture in 1986). The annual lecture, hosted by the Center for the Humanities, is open to the region’s academic and religious communities and the general public.